Senior Java Engineer - Security - Elasticsearch

In this role you contribute to the Elasticsearch Security team, shaping core security features at the engine level. You will design and implement high-performance, scalable security capabilities including authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation. You collaborate with engineers and product leaders to embed security into customer features and drive vulnerability management. You apply cryptographic solutions and work across distributed systems to ensure data isolation and zero-trust principles. This is an opportunity to influence security at scale in a leading AI-powered search platform.

• flexible locations and schedules
• generous vacation days
• donation matching program
• volunteer hours
• parental leave (16+ weeks)
• competitive pay and health coverage

• Contribute to architecture and production-ready security features for Elasticsearch
• Design and implement major security components within the core engine
• Develop foundational security models and optimize performance at scale
• Apply cryptographic techniques to address real customer use cases
• Ensure robust data isolation in shared infrastructure for multi-tenant environments
• Stay current with security best practices across authentication, identity, cryptography, and data access
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to embed security in new features from the outset
• Lead vulnerability management efforts with the InfoSec team and accelerate triage using AI-driven tools

• Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management
• Experience with concurrent, high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code
• Experience building scalable authorization systems for large permission sets in distributed systems
• Solid understanding of distributed systems security, including mutual trust, zero-trust transport, partition tolerance, and state propagation
• Knowledge of edge identity protocols (OAuth 2.0, SAML)
• Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development and debugging
• Ability to collaborate across functions and work autonomously in a distributed team

• collaboration across teams
• autonomy and proactive decision-making
• clear, asynchronous communication
• Java/JVM internals
• concurrency and parallelism
• distributed security design and authorization models